A 'little escape' from Lyme disease

HYANNIS — At home on a sailboat since he was 5 years old, Paul Garcia added windsurfing, mountain climbing, fishing, skiing and hiking to his repertoire of outdoor activities through the years.

But after falling ill with Lyme disease in 2011, Garcia — a self-described workaholic — had to give up his career in research and development and put aside his recreational pursuits as well.

The disease, transmitted by the bite of the deer tick, caused neurologic, memory and cognitive problems, Garcia said.

“I, like many Lyme patients, have trouble sharing the full details of how Lyme has affected our lives. The impact is devastating,” Garcia said.

But Garcia said long-term treatment with antibiotics allowed him to recover enough to resume sailing for fun and escape.

And Wednesday, he and an organization called Sail Cape Cod will extend that pleasure to other Lyme patients with a free sail from the Cape Cod Maritime Museum dock on South Street in Hyannis.

People dealing with what is variously called late-stage, chronic or post-treatment Lyme are often isolated in their homes, Garcia said.

“I want to encourage people to live their life to the fullest despite chronic illness,” Garcia said.

Teaming up with Sail Cape Cod for the second annual Lyme patient sailing allows him the opportunity to share “the pleasures of recreational sailing and the therapeutic benefits of it,” Garcia said.

Part of the mission of Sail Cape Cod, a 5-year-old organization that counts two adaptive vessels among its fleet of five sailboats and two powerboats, is to help people with physical disabilities and developmental disabilities to get out on the water, said Michael Trovato, president of Sail Cape Cod.

The sailing program also works with at-risk youth and military families, in addition to offering fee-based youth and adult sailing lessons, Trovato said. “The therapeutic and recreational benefits of sailing are very good for people.”

For people with Lyme and other chronic illness, sailing offers a “little escape,” he said.

People with Lyme and other tick-borne diseases can have problems with balance and fatigue that limit what they can do for recreation, but Sail Cape Cod crew members are trained to deal with passengers who have a variety of conditions, Garcia said.

Lyme did not stop him from sailing or doing anything else the first time he contracted the disease in 1999, shortly after moving to New Jersey from Stamford, Connecticut, Garcia said.

“I was really just a very active kind of go-getter,” said Garcia, who was treated with doxycycline.

But in 2011, he got Lyme again and ended up on intravenous antibiotics in the hospital for five days.

“I was literally on the living room floor shaking from the fever” before going to the hospital, said Garcia. He also described a rash all over his torso.

“It was three days before the fever was even under control," he said.

“I like to tell people I feel like the luckiest guy in the world because I didn’t die,” he said. “I was really close to not making it.”

Garcia said he did not like the idea, “but the fact it’s beneficial is hard to ignore.”

A supporter of several Lyme organizations, including Lyme Awareness of Cape Cod and the Global Lyme Alliance, Garcia said he eventually would like to sail around Cape Cod under the banner of an organization he has started, Lymelite Mission, to raise awareness and money for research.

“We need more answers,” Garcia said.

In the meantime, he would like Lyme patients on the Cape to consider going for a free sail at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

He said seats are still available, and he will keep a waiting list if they fill up because sometimes Lyme patients have to change plans at the last minute.

"It's a beautiful way to escape — from anything," Garcia said. He hopes to get the same good weather as he did for last year's event.

"It was fantastic," Garcia said. "It was everything I could have hoped for. The staff were excellent."

— Follow Cynthia McCormick on Twitter: @Cmccormickcct.

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